mandy drury is here with what's moving your money and it's macy's and they're taking last-minute shoppingother level. >> they'll be open for 48 hours straight this coming weekend. can you shop for that long? it will be from 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to 7:00 a.m. on sunday and at that point it will end and macy's will remain open for the remainder of the day. you can see things like 70% off or buy one, get one free signs around the country in places like aeropostale and it will reduce everything in the store by 60% and american eagle outfitters is offering 40% off of its purchases and saks is cutting prices on some designer clothing up to 60%. so if you haven't done your shopping yet, chris, you have to get out there and you'll probably get a good discount, as well. >> cnbc's mandy drury, thank you. >> thank you. >>> if you're thinking of making a new change in the new year, u.s. news and world report is up with the top jobs, number five, physician, computer systems analyst, pharmacist, number two is a registered nurse. lots of health care there and the top job for 2013, dentist. the profession i

"closing bell," bill griffeth and mandy drury, is coming up next. >>> and we do welcome you to "closing bell." yes, i'm bill griffeth here at the new york stock exchange. hey, mandy. >> i'm mandy drury standing in for maria bort row mow today. hello, everybody. the dow and s&p are looking to finish the week on a winning note despite the lack of progress in washington on the fiscal cliff. the nasdaq continues to be dragged down by apple. >> apple's had a tough week. we'll get into that coming up. we're still looking for a deal on capitol hill, surprise, surprise. all to keep us from going over the fiscal cliff. just in case, though, we've got some experts on happened to help you protect your money. here's how we stand right now, though. it's been a generally positive day for some of the blue chip averages. the dow among them. up 57 points right now, near the highs of the session at 13,003 and change. the nasdaq continues lower. you can blame apple. technology suffering as a result today, down 12 points right now at 2977. the s&p is up 2.25 points at 1416. with less than an hour to go in

mandy drury is here. how much green is grey bringing in? >> 5,000 shades of green.se had its corporate christmas party and the ceo stood up and promised every single employee a $5,000 bonus to celebrate what i guess has been a very profitable year, largely thanks to the "fifty shades of grey." and the cheering went on for minutes. this book has topped the "new york times" paperback bestsellers list for 33 weeks. and it's not just "fifty shades of grey." random house has had other big hits as well. they are going to be issued in the next paycheck and here's a little factoid for you. apparently the first book in the grey series was originally published by a really small publishing house in australia. i did not know that. >> and i just realized that i read two of those books, "gone girl" and the grisham book. if those employees want to parlay their bonuses, i guess they won't have to go to a casino anymore. zynga wants to offer real money gambling. >> right. >> so what are the chances that that's going to happen? >> well, weap don't know at thi stage but you have seen

>> happy holidays to you, mandy drury, thank you. >>> if you're thinking about picking up last minute gifts, amazon is out with the list of the best-selling books of the year as of today. number five, "strength binder 2.0." number four, probably on the list last year "the hunger games" by usen collins. number three, "50 shades freed" by e.l. james. number two, "50 shades darker." and the number one best-seller for the year "50 shades of gray." sometimes what we suffer from is bigger than we think ... like the flu. with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies. prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. so don't wait. call your doctor right away. tamiflu is prescription medicine for treating the flu in adults and children one year and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing. have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic react

mandy drury and bill griffith are up next. have a great weekend. >>> welcome to "closing bell," everybody. very important hour right now. over at white house lots of things going on. we'll keep you updated as it all happens. i'm mandy drury sitting in for maria bartiromo. >> i'm bill griffith. we're just three days away from the new year. still no fix on the fiscal cliff, but there are developments right now, as you know. brian just mentioning there. various congressional leaders and the president getting set to meet at the white house this hour to work on last-minute negotiations all in an effort to avoid those series of tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect next year. what we hear is the senate leaders are there. speaker boehner and minority leader nancy pelosi have yet to arrive, but now we're showing you live pictures. maybe somebody is going to get out of that car, and we'll see if any of the other leaders will be heading to the white house. this is speaker boehner right now heading into the white house. we'l

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cnbc's mandy drury is at the new york stock exchange. good morning. >> good morning, natalie. we had a rally in asian stocks overnight with the japanese nikkei now up nearly 23% for the year. good if you've got a diversified portfol portfolio. obviously, fiscal cliff watching is front and center. that's key for the markets here. and did you like your holiday gift? well, about $63 billion worth of holiday goodies are going to be taken back to the store, but either exchanged or refunded according to the national retail federation. back to you. >> hopefully people still go out and buy. all right. thanks so much, mandy drury. >>> and soul singer has passed away following complications from a recent heart attack. bass was most famous for her hit song "rescue me," a bubbly pop tune from 1965. ♪ come on baby and rescue me come on baby and rescue me ♪ ♪ because i need you by my side ♪ ♪ can't you see that i'm lonely ♪ >> she was 72 years old. and you're up to date right now. it's 7:17. back over to savannah, willie, and maria larosa in for al. good song. >> a good song. good legacy, f

mandy drury is here. mandy, the british banking giant going to pay a whopping $1.9 billion.e making this money laundering probe go away? >> it's very interesting decision, actual ily, what came out of this, chris, because given the extent of evidence against hhbc, they are see ing there is the better of two evils. maybe you can call it a healthy compromise between a settlement and also a much harsher money laundering indictment. obviously this might hurt the bank's reputation but hopefully not a whole lot more than that because at the end of the day a harsher indictment would have sparked concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize what is one of the world's largest banks and therefore destabilize the global financial system. i guess you could call this maybe a case of has it become too big to indict. instead it just got the record $1.92 billion settlement. >> a big star is making a deal apparently with pepsi. so i think pretty soon when you go to drink your can of pepsi you will actually be kissing the forehead of beyonce. >> yeah. beyonce and pepsi have become global p

i'm mandy drury sitting in for maria bartiromo. happy boxing day as well. >> christmas is over but mandy has been celebrating boxing day all day. we didn't get any presents from lawmakers in washington yet. we're still five days away from falling off the proverbial fiscal cliff and wall street, like everybody else, is waiting for some kind of a solution here, and as you can see by today's numbers the waiting game continues, although we thank brian sullivan and you, mandy, for bringing us back to positive territory in the last hour. >> i'm not sure we can take credit but we'll take it. >> the dow is up a fraction at the moment. 13,139 after a meandering much of the day. the nasdaq hardest hit today. technology has been very volatile recently. still down a fraction right now. 13 points, fraction percentage-wise and the s&p is down 3.33 at 1423. five days left until the fiscal cliff deadline, and though the market has been very resilient to this point, what happens if we go over the cliff and if lawmakers cannot get it together come ja

i'm mandy drury sitting in for maria bartiromo. it is the end of another trading day, and, no, we do not have a fix for the fiscal cliff. guess what, the numbers also reflect that. let's take a look at how a day on wall street, looks like the dow is down marginally, 24 points to the downside and the nasdaq off by the biggest percentage loss, down by 22 points and the s&p 500 is down by about seven points, and as i said it is crunch time. there are only three trading days left now for 2012 and still no deal to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. all signs are pointing to more talks for lawmakers to try to hash things out. should wall street bet on a fix before january the 1st or is that wishful thinking? >> let's find out. let's speak to our guests. welcome to all of you. brian, where do you make of where we're going right now? you're the one that remains sort of neutral. you're buying this market right now, aren't you? >> well, we're pretty much staying put. we're recommending that our clients have a substantial allocation to equiti

cnbc's mandy drury, thank you very much. >>> if you're thinking ahead about planning your summer vacationnely planet is out wits top ten u.s. destinations for 2013. it might surprise you. number five, american samoa. number four, philadelphia. fancy new museum opened this year. the barnes. number three, san juan islands in washington state. number two for those of you who want to go west, fair babanks, alaska. maybe a big surprise. the number one destination, a city that's undergoing a resurgence, louisville, kentucky. ♪ [ male announcer ] we began serving handcrafted coffees in seattle, and people seemed to like it. so we wondered -- where else could we take this? ♪ for over 40 years, we've brought our passion for fine coffee and espresso to people everywhere. but one place was impossible, until now. our lattes, espresso and brewed coffee, now in your home from a machine like no other. and now $50 off through january 1st. the verismo® system, by starbucks. >>> oh, and you thought all you had to get through was the fiscal cliff fight. no. president obama's team is already working on the n

it's all coming up, mandy drury is with me today.e'll see you at the top of the hour for the "closing bell." >> i will be with you indeed. >>> as part of our series on "the mighty middle market," we're going to take a look at companies that have broken into the big leagues this year. our data team compiled a list of the s&p 500 firms that were in the middle market, but as of this year, have annual revenues above $1 billion. making them no longer obviously in the middle markets. we've got them on a great graphic hib me on the screen. big fpharma, alexion, vertex behind me. regeneron as well. all the way from one up to ten. brian sullivan. >> mandy, thank you. >>> well, netflix feeling the heat from regulators over a facebook posting by the ceo, reed hastings. julia boorstin is in l.a. live and in person, not on facebook, with more. >> reporter: well, brian, the s.e.c. is looking into whether netflix ceo reed hastings violated fair disclosure rules. back on july 3rd, hastings posted on facebook telling his 200,000-plus followers that n

i'm mandy drury in for maria bartiromo. >> i'm bill griffith. the dow erasing half of its losses following word that the house is scheduled now to reconvene sunday evening, and, of course, that's helping to spark a turnaround on wall street. the guess is that maybe they will have something to talk about by that time. maybe they will have a deal to vote on, but we're not going to get ahead of ourselves right now. the dow down 70 points and was down 140, something in the lows. now at 13,044. yes, we were below 13,000 for a time. the nasdaq is down 17 now at 2973. and the s&p 500 index is down eight points right now at 1411. so the tax cuts and spending cuts, there's fear of another u.s. debt downgrade by the major rating agencies. >> will that happen, and will it derail any hopes of a real economic recovery? in today's "closing bell" exchange lee munson and jared bernstein, cnbc contributor and former chief economist under vice president joe biden. we'll hopefully get andrew in a second, and we also have rick santelli who joins us as always at thi

i'm mandy drury sitting in for maria bartiromo. this is where we're finishing the day on wall street. we're also finishing out the trading week as well. the nasdaq has been the underperformer all day because of apple. still sitting below 3,000. the dow managing to finish 80 points higher. the s&p 500 also stretching its legs, up by four points. bill, you're back. >> of course. we've just started without you here, mandy. i'm bill griffeth. let's find out who made money on wall street. i'm still getting dressed here. ralph is our mentor here. and there's our own rick santelli. so we just got started here. what do you think of this market? >> i'm ecstatic. >> you're ecstatic? >> yes. >> is that beyond bullish? >> yonbeyond bullish. if bad news can't take you down, that's good news. for the past couple weeks, that's all we've been getting. and the market is working its way higher. it's not only in the states. it's around the world whether it be hong kong, the dax or the cac. everybody is saying they'll compromise. one way or another, w

. >> bill griffith along with mandy drury stepping in. maria is off today as we welcome you to "closing bell" as ben bernanke wraps up his final news conference of 2012 after the fed's two-day meetings in which they agreed to continue to buy treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities, but the new wrinkle now in monetary policy that we all heard about today was a new kind of target. he called it a guidepost. to this point they said they would keep the fed funds rate at around 0% until 2015. now they say they will keep it there at least until the fed funds rate drops to 6.5%. it's currently at 7.7%, and while he was talking, mandy, the market lost ground. >> absolutely. let's take a look right in front of you. what you've got is the dow sitting right there on the line. it did actually drop negative just in the last five, ten minutes. we were at the highs of the day around 81 points to the positive on the dow. and then we really watched as ben bernanke was speaking the market lose its steam. the nasdaq also went negative where it is

let's go to mandy drury at the futures now with the traders. >> hey, scotty. absolutely. it is a positive sign for the global growth picture right? but the oil market is really hardly moving on the news. so the question is could we be setting up for a rally down the road? let's talk futures now. we'll go to jim at the cme in chicago and the nymex in new york. jim, i would like to start with you. are you surprised by the move in crude? do you think maybe the oil market is doubting the china recovery here? >> i think it is one of two things. first to answer your question, yes i'm surprised. i think that manufacturing number should have caused crude to spike more. the fact that it hasn't means one of two things. one they either doubt the information or they doubt the story out of china or, two, there are other factors keeping crude lower. over the last few weeks it hasn't performed very well with the rest of the risk assets so to me this is a negative thing. i'm short-term negative crude. if it traded below 86.36 yesterday's low it would be more of a confirmation but the rea

i'm mandy drury. maria will be back tomorrow. wow, lots of cheering here. >> there always is. people love it when the market closes. i'll bill griffith. bernanke spoke today. stocks gave back some early gains. here's how we're finishing the day on wall street. as we were saying, the dow was up 80 points at the peak today until the news conference began with the fed chairman, and the devil was in the details. the dow down 12, now 6 points. we're finishing near final figures down to 13,241. nasdaq down 8 points and the s&p hanging in there, at least for the moment, still settling out but at 1428 and change. >> indeed. with the marks losing steam during the fed chairman's press conference. why don't we take a closer look at today's moves as we've got lots of people lined up here and a couple on the set as well? >> randy bateman from huntington funds is over there. stephanie link, cnbc contributor and bruce mccain with key private bank in cleveland and michael pento of pento portfolios, no idea where you are, and bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. what did you

. >> mandy drury at the new york stock exchange, thanks. >>> someone sign this kid up. this is christian balkner, giving the tampa bay buccaneers cheerleaders a run for their money. check him out. ♪ >> he is good. they call christian little steer, named after the mascot captain steer. in case you're wondering, yes, he can definitely teach you how to dougie. he is good. >> who are you talking about? oh, there was a little boy there also? >> nice, matt. >> when you said check this out, these guys -- >> in about eight years, that kid will be not be -- >> turning around a lot. >> al roker has your forecast. al? >> thank you so much. we've been talking about this system. first of all, it dumped a ton of snow in minneapolis, as you just heard, anywhere from 8 to 14" of snow before this thing finished up and moved out. now along the system we've got a risk of strong storms. look at this. from new england all the way down to texas and into the southeast and gulf coast. and, in fact, we have tornado watches up now from meridian down to morgan city until 10:00 am central standard

mandy drury. >> the ceo is making more comments about dollar general this morning saying despite a strongy season, he has rarn weekly sales fluctuate as much as they have recently. the cfo, by the way, carl, sayisay ing company will be cutting prices on certain items which has raised some concerns about margins. in fact, it does seem to be putting pressure on competitors like dollar free. you've got family dollar as well moving lower today. electronic retailer best buy, as you can see on the board there, also in the red by nearly 3%. coach at the bottom of the board there also just marginally lower. goldman sachs did today resume coverage of the stock slapping wit a rare sell rating on coach with a $58 price tag. that's what we're watching. as we say, retailers on the run. run of the worst performing sectors on the s&p today, carl. back to you. >> mandy, thank you so much. >>> tech companies are holding a lot of cash. that's definitely no secret. but just where is all that cash? you'd be surprised. we're going to tell you after the break. >>> first, rick santelli's working on something fo